Sarawak

Sarawak is a state of Malaysia, with Kuching serving as its capital. Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo in the East Indies, bordering Sabah to the northeast, Kalimantan to the south, and Brunei to the north. In 1839, British explorer James Brooke arrived in Sarawak, and he and his descendents reigned over Sarawak as the "White Rajahs" from 1841 to 1946. During World War II, it was occupied by the Japanese for three years. In 1946, the last White Rajah, Charles Vyner Brooke, ceded Sarawak to Britain, and it was granted self-government on 22 July 1963. On 16 September of that year, it was one of the founding members of the Federation of Malaysia, and Indonesia's opposition to the federation led to the three-year Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation. From 1962 to 1990, the North Kalimantan Communist Party launched an insurgency against Malaysian rule in Sarawak, ending with a government victory. In 2017, Sarawak had a population of 2,770,000 people.